


An Open Bar

by Marzi



Category: Leverage
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 10:45:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13029399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marzi/pseuds/Marzi
Summary: Sterling knew Indira McCallister, and Nate did not. This is not the story of how they met.





	An Open Bar

**Author's Note:**

> Was digging around some old stuff and found this. Figured it was done enough to post.

"So, where are the others?"

Sophie just looked at him. At a semi-crowded bar, in public, with no immediate crime being committed, he had no play for aggressive action. Any of the drunker patrons could decide to pick a fight with him even if he had legal precedent to arrest her. The perils of being near a beautiful woman in public, everyone else wanted to be near her too.

Rather than risk being run out of the bar he had become quite fond of during his investigation, he sat at her side. The ball was admittedly in her court, if she showed enough displeasure with his decision to be near her, one look with those dark eyes would summon the table of young businessmen to her rescue. Even the bartender, who Sterling thought he had a good rapport with, was eyeing him with disapproval.

She let the silence stretch a moment longer before shifting on her stool, angling just slightly towards him. Any potential rescuers were dismissed by the subtle acceptance of his company, and the bartender lost his guard dog stance. Sterling tried not to let his relief show, but the smile at the edge of her lips told him he failed.

"Just me." She finally answered.

He snorted in disbelief and ordered his usual. "You really expect me to believe that?"

"No, but it is amusing to tell you the truth. For once."

She took a sip of her cocktail and he didn't watch her lips kiss the glass.

"Why the long face, Sterling? Last I heard, you were moving up in the world."

Yes, his acceptance into Interpol. His reason for being here. Not at the bar, though sort of that too, but his current case. Perhaps he was being a touch paranoid concerning Nathan Ford. After all, the grifter next to him hadn't been at the job that had landed him his new government position. It wasn't like his ex-partner would send someone to spy on-- or god forbid sabotage-- his first case with the agency.

Would he?

If past events had taught Sterling anything, it was that Nathan Ford was now a man driven by revenge. What did he set his sights on now that the man who he blamed for the death of his son was out of the picture? His old partner? Even when they worked together they had been competitive. Being on the same side didn't necessarily mean having to play nice. They had never deliberately sabotaged each other in the past though. Of course, in the past, neither of them had been criminals.

"You expect me to believe you just happened to show up in a town where I have an open investigation, into the very bar where I've been frequenting, and take my seat, all by accident?"

The seat bit was a lie, but it did help sell the impossibility of what she expected him to believe. Since when was a coincidence just a coincidence?

"Your seat? And here I took you for a corner booth man, out of sight, in the shadows, where no one can sneak up on you."

He did typically sit in the back booth, where he had line of sight on both the entrance and the back alley exit. He had been cautious before entering into government work.

The point was hers, but he would not be deterred. "If you aren't here because of me, what are you doing here?"

"Vacation."

He wanted to call it a worse lie than her first one, but the longer he sat there, the more Sterling realized she _was_ alone. Apparently her absence from the crew in Kiev had not been a short lived thing.

"You're taking a vacation?" He wanted to mock her, bait her, but something constricted in his throat and his words turned rougher than he intended. "Should have sent Nate loose among the criminals a long time ago, drive them all to honest work just to get away from his nagging."

Sophie laughed, and Sterling was so startled it took him a moment to realize it was genuine.

"You sound like you're speaking from experience. Is there something you'd like to share about your past? A criminal enterprise you ran to in order to escape insurance auditor Nathan Ford? You do look like a criminal."

Maybe there had been something bitter in his words, some old wound he still carried, but there was some much fresher pain in her eyes. It was all too easy to deflect. "Sure you aren't just projecting?"

She shrugged and went back to her drink, so he did the same. Neither of them had won that round, and now they were both wary to pick up again.

"They'd call you Badger."

"An animal motif, really?" At least she hadn't gone the non-creative weasel route. But a badger?

"No, no, hear me out." She let go of her glass then, speaking with her hands, her body. "Small. Vicious. Looks a bit ridiculous."

He rolled his eyes to cover the inane flattery he felt. It wouldn't be good to let on that she wasn't annoying him. "You can't run an international crime syndicate and be called Badger."

"Thinking highly of yourself, I see. No, you'd be more local. A middleman type, a fixer maybe."

"Now that's just insulting."

"You're the one who's all about rules and order. You couldn't be a crime boss. Too chaotic. Too contradictory. Too many lies."

She took another drink and he wondered if her mind had wandered away from him, and back to Nate.

He wasn't jealous of her wandering focus. It wasn't like he had nearly ten years of working at Nathan's side and hearing about his run ins with Sophie Devereaux abroad, wondering if his partner was making it all up. Why was it that Nate, happily married, had found the beautiful mystery woman to chase across Europe? Then again, Sterling wasn't sure what he would have done, divorcee who just lost visitation rights to his only child, faced with a woman like Sophie Devereaux.

No, he knew what he would have done. He would have arrested her, that's what a man like him did with criminals, if she hadn't successfully run circles around his broken heart. Being pursued by a Jesuit who took his vows seriously was probably the only thing that had prevented her from leaving a swath of broken men behind her, and she likely did enough of that regardless.

Of course, now here he was, drinking with her, and not arresting her. Well, drinking next to her, he hadn't fallen quite so far. He didn't have anything on her right then, not yet, and she would vanish before any outstanding warrants on her aliases could be tied back to her. While his being a part of the case might have been a coincidence, Sophie Devereaux being in town during an investigation into a smuggling ring clearly wasn't.

It wasn't like he could believe anything she said, even if he did ask her what she was really up to. "So now that we've cleared up my alter ego, what about you? What would you do, if you were an honest woman?"

She smiled down at her glass, and it didn't reach her eyes. "Why don't you tell me?"

In being asked to speak, Sterling suddenly found himself without words. She had asked him why he was upset when he had first approached her, but now, there was clearly something bothering her. Could she be acting the wounded bird? What the hell was she hoping to gain out of it? What could Sterling tell her about herself that would incriminate him?

He looked across the bar to the bottles stacked against the wall. His fingers spun the tumbler of whiskey in front of him before he lifted it. "You'd tell the truth." He finished his drink before reaching into his pocket to pay.

His back was to her, foot poised to walk away, when he heard her murmured reply.

"Sounds simple enough."

They both knew it wasn't.

-

Sterling met Indira McCallister not long after that.


End file.
